Saturday, April 24, 2010

Saturday Snippets

I'm leaving in a few minutes for what will be my last stint as an appointed election worker for the town of Kingston. Once the house forecloses and I move, I won't be a Kingston resident. I've been doing it for 20 years. It's had it's ups and downs. It mattered to me to do my part in protecting democracy. Sure it wasn't military service. I wasn't on a front line somewhere. But democracy has more subtle enemies. Apathy. Incompetence.

When I work those elections with my boss Bette, who happens to be "warden" to my "clerk", we are focused and serious. There is no "that's good enough" or "that's close enough". Even in elections where we know it will be simple or not controversial, we still cross every "t" and dot every "i".

It mattered and I was good at it. I'll miss it.

So what to do while I am gone? Well you can go to this post by Rajiv Srinivasan - "The Bus Stop". Rajiv is a real live, frontline Milblogger. Greyhawk thought this was worth directing people to and I agree.

I've started to re-read "Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families ". Right off the bat I am just as irritated with Colin Diver as I was 20 some odd years ago.

I'm hoping tomorrow to sneak away and do something fun and relaxing with friends. wish me luck.

2 comments:

Warrant Diver said...

Maggie this post of yours convinced me to buy "Common Ground" which I am reading now. In trying to find a copy of the book I found one called "All Souls: a Family Story from Southie" which I just finished...my first experience with any Boston history, at least post 1776. Good reads.

BostonMaggie said...

That's funny, I really couldn't relate to "All Souls". My life wasn't anything like that. I didn't live in one of the housing projects and none of my extended family did either. My Dad was a successful executive of a route 128 company.

My life was very different.